Harpreet Banwait is a man with a mission. He is aiming to honor and grow the Pizza Hub restaurant business his father established 10 years ago, all the while giving Torontonians a great meal at an affordable price.
“My father’s passion and dedication to food and hospitality is a time-honored family tradition shared with his own father and brothers growing up."
So taking over felt very natural for me.
Offering traditional pizza and panzerotti to busy families and teenagers looking for a late-night snack, Pizza Hub offers something unexpected for those with more sophisticated palates: sophisticated twists on traditional fast food recipes.
Now up to three locations in the Greater Toronto Area, Pizza Hub has made Harpreet the leader of his family’s next generation of entrepreneurs. As a small business owner, Harpreet understands that “there are no days off when you’re running your own business, which can be both exhilarating and draining. You have to learn balance.”
“I’ve always known that I’d eventually go down the entrepreneurial path and I’m very grateful that I get to support something so close to my heart and carry on what my father has built.”
He has big plans to expand locations and scale up operations in the next five years and he has a clear plan of how to get there.
A winning recipe
Pizza Hub’s strategy has much to do with Harpreet’s passion for culinary fusion and his understanding of what it takes to reach his customers.
The online world can bring any kind of food option right to your front door. So you have to find your niche and get really creative with it to stake your claim in the marketplace.
That’s why you can find regular chicken wings right next to Indian-spiced chicken wings, along with piri piri flavored wedges or dishes topped off with fresh coriander.
Innovative toppings like shahi paneer and tandoori chicken round out the choices for a self-designed pizza and keeps his customers dazzled and coming back for more.
Related: The sweet story behind Pinata Smash Cake
More than just pizza
There is also a Health Bar offering a wide range of freshly pressed juices that are raw, fresh and pure. Juice mixes can start with anything from beetroot to pomegranate as a base.
Pizza Hub also offers green drinks with choices of mint, kale or parsley to tempt new and returning customers.
Delivery and take-out became a popular option as the pandemic took hold in Ontario.
Classic pizza delights, along with a juice bar and other healthy fruit snacks and treats are what differentiate Pizza Hub from the many other pizza places vying for attention in Ontario’s competitive online culinary scene.
Bringing his website up to speed
Facing the challenges of the pandemic required a combination of grit, smart business decisions, and the tools Harpreet found in GoDaddy’s Website Builder.
When he had the opportunity to rebrand and remodel Pizza Hub’s flagship location, he jumped at the chance to update Pizza Hub’s online presence.
Before the pandemic, “...we were able to foster relations with people who would come and dine in with us every week. But with the restrictions on indoor dining operations, either people rush in to pick up their orders or resort to online delivery options.”
GoDaddy helped us be seen during the pandemic.
“Hosting our website on their domain not only gave our loyal and returning customer base access to our menus, but also helped new customers discover our business.”
This is where Harpreet's determination to use his online presence to fill in for face-to-face interactions started. He turned to GoDaddy’s Website Builder, which he describes as being “extremely straightforward.”
Reaching customers where they search
“The Website Builder offers a large selection of modern, ready-to-go templates that suit unique business needs and includes built-in marketing tools to help businesses grow. It allows you to create a responsive website with no technical knowledge.”
I love that I can manage everything for my website in one place.
“During the pandemic, we added search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities (a keyword search and match tool) to our website to ensure Pizza Hub was on page-one search results for delivery and takeout across the GTA.”
“Optimizing the website improved Pizza Hub’s search result ranking, making our business easier to find when potential customers searched for things like dinner, pizza or delivery.” This was the magic behind Pizza Hub’s continued customer base growth during lockdowns.
The website’s ease of use and management access has also been a game changer for Pizza Hub’s website operations, and so has GoDaddy’s SEO wizard, described by Harpreet as “...a do-it-yourself tool built into GoDaddy Website Builder that improves your website’s SEO.”
“From website updates to email and SEO, everything is managed in the GoDaddy Website Builder dashboard available on my laptop and my phone.”
Paying it forward
When asked about how he has maintained success during the pandemic, Harpreet is quick to respond. He describes the secret to his success as centered around relationships, whether it’s with customers, suppliers, other small businesses or those in their own kitchen.
We’re only as good as the people around us.
Equally passionate about making sure other entrepreneurs know how to reach their online goals, Harpreet was delighted to showcase his story in GoDaddy’s Unstoppable Campaign.
By sharing how his experience using GoDaddy tech has helped maintain his forward business trajectory, he hopes to motivate other small business owners to create websites for their business ideas.
By offering great tasting, innovative dishes combined with a winning online presence — optimized to find the customer when they search using his menu’s keywords — Harpreet has found a winning recipe for success.
“You truly never know where an online presence will take you and overcoming obstacles and cheering one another on is what it’s all about. Having that unstoppable spirit and continuing forward no matter what life throws at you!”
